Page 475 of Dark Love

Max falls in step with me. “Dahlia’s security system went offline this morning while she was at work. I’m going to assume that was you.”

“Why would you know that my woman’s security system went off?” Don’t kill him.

“Because I monitor every security system in the neighborhood. Did you install a new one?”

She’s not yours. Step back or I’ll make you step back. I don’t care who your family is. “Dahlia is taken care of. That’s all you need to know.” Control stinks at times like these.

“What is happening?” Talon doesn’t bother to wait past the door shutting.

“I’m here to offer a warning and ask for some tech.”

Max stops walking towards a leather chair. “What tech?”

“Yours.” I hand him the slip of paper full of meaningless letters.

“How do you know about this?” Max almost drops the paper.

“It seems we both know things that we shouldn’t.”

“Impossible.” Max shakes his head and walks over to the bar. “It’s impossible. No one knows about this. Even the people building it only know their small section. They don’t know what it is or what it’s even called. How do you?”

There’s no way I’m telling him. Max will try to steal Shock. “It doesn’t matter how I know.”

“You’re wrong there. It matters. I have a leak that needs to be fixed before the company loses billions.”

Interesting that Max didn’t say he’d lose billions. “You don’t have a leak.”

“In order for you to say that, you’d have to have a hacker… an impossibly good hacker.”

Max stares at me like he’s going to pry the truth out of me. “That’s what I need. I’ll return it when I’m done.”

“That’s it? You’ll return it when you’re done. Do you really think I’m just going to hand it over to you because you asked?”

“Yes.”

“Why?” Talon asks. “Why do you need it?”

“There’s a highly sophisticated human trafficking ring operating in Urbium.”

Max and Talon look at each other, communicating something silently.

“For how long?” Talon asks.

“Years. Probably a decade or more.” The fact that I didn’t see a single sign is enough that they’re a force to be reckoned with.

“You aren’t thinking they stayed small to avoid detection.”

Talon turns his gaze to me, but he isn’t really seeing me. The Vincenti Family keeps a tight rein on the area around their neighborhood, but they also take note of what’s happening all around Urbium. If there’s one thing they hate in theworld, it’s people that exploit women and children. They don’t tolerate it at all. Their body count is mainly made up of people who crossed those lines.

“No.”

“Max, give him the tech.”

“I can’t. There’s only one prototype. He could send his hacker over to me.”

Not happening. “No.”

“He wants to use it. He comes to my facility.”

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